An electrical connector is disclosed in U. S. Patent Application Ser. No. 182,697 filed April 18, 1988 for electrically connecting electrical conductors of a flat flexible or flexible printed electrical cable to conductive paths of a printed circuit board which involves inserting an end of the cable within the connector and clamping the cable between a cover member and a dielectric housing so that electrical contacts in the housing are electrically connected with exposed conductor ends or sections of the conductors of the cable.
The cable would easily slip out of the connector, because it was not securely clamped in one version of the connector. In another version of the connector, holes would be formed in the cable and mated with projections in the connector housing which would secure the cable in the connector. This required a special tool to make the holes in the cable and the cable would be weakened. A further version of the connector was to force the cover member with a depressed section that increased the contact pressure between the contacts and the cable conductors. In the case of a connector with few electrical contacts, the retention pressure between the contacts and the cable conductors was insufficient to effectively retain the cable in the connector. Then a connector with a large number of contacts was used, the contact pressure of the contacts on the cable conductors at the outer sides of the cable was higher than the center contacts on the center cable conductors thereby causing the connection between the outer contacts and center conductors to be poor resulting in reduced connector performance.
The objective of the present invention is to resolve the above-identified problems and provide an electrical connector for flat flexible or flexible printed electrical cables that is simple in structure and retains the flat cable securely in the connector.